Geordie Finishing School for Girls, BBC Three

A tale of two societies when the Home Counties hits Newcastle

by Josh SperoTuesday, 02 August 2011

Lucy Haythornthwaite-Shock is aptly named for the culture shock she receivesBBC

If you're reading this review, you'll probably be expecting a sarky analysis. It invites that - wow, posh girls with unpronounceable names have to work in a Newcastle chippy! - but the programme, which sent four Home Counties fillies up North to compare lives with four Newcastle lasses, hit on something so important that we should force MPs to watch it.

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Permalink Submitted by J T (not verified) on Wed, 03/08/2011 - 07:00

I actually appear on the programme, as I am in the Officer Training Corps in Wales. That organisation has nothing to do with upbringing, it is available to any universtiy student that can pass selection, and we have people from all walks of life. The equivalent in the North is... The Officer Training Corps if they are in university, or if not, the Territorial Army! The OTC is basically the TA for university students. It gives many of the same opportunities, and again, all that is required to get in is to pass selection, which any motivated person can do.

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Permalink Submitted by Josh Spero on Wed, 03/08/2011 - 10:46

Hi JT - thanks for your comment. I didn't mean that no-one in the north can find such schemes but that the barriers are conceptual and to do with opportunity and imagination. For example, when would they have time to do it? And how many of them are at university to start with? Do they understand that they are missing those skills? Do they have enough energy to have ambition? Also, the girls from Newcastle in the programme were clearly highly motivated, only they had to direct it towards earning money and taking care of their young kids.

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